Chicago Cubs vs. San Francisco Giants Preview, Saturday 5/21, 6:15 CT

The Cubs have won six of the last eight games played between these two teams, dating back to last August.

Keep up the good work!

At posting time there wasn't any word on Jason Heyward, other than he wouldn't be in the starting lineup, and this observation:

For what it's worth watching Jason Heyward move around you wouldn't know he was injured so maybe some good news coming.

— Jesse Rogers (@ESPNChiCubs) May 21, 2016

Here are today's particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Fowler CF, Bryant 3B, Rizzo 1B, Zobrist RF, Soler LF, Baez 2B, Russell SS, Ross C, Lester P

Here is tonight's #Cubs lineup and broadcast information.

Game preview: https://t.co/pFowQrfLkz #LetsGo pic.twitter.com/TvDjpOImx0

— #VoteCubs (@Cubs) May 21, 2016

Giants lineup:

Span CF, Panik 2B, Tomlinson LF, Posey 1B, Duffy 3B, Brown C, Crawford SS, Blanco RF, Cain P

This ought to be interesting:

Kelby Tomlinson, today's Giants LF, said he hasn't played the position since middle school. He got some work in CF in Instructional League

— Chris Haft/SF Giants (@sfgiantsbeat) May 21, 2016

Jon Lester is off to one of the best starts of his career. In eight outings he's allowed more than one run just twice, and he managed to post a "quality start" in those, too. He's gone at least six innings in seven of his eight starts. He faced the Giants once last year, August 7 at Wrigley Field, and allowed six hits and two runs in seven innings. The two Giants who have faced him most (and hit him best) are Buster Posey (4-for-11) and Denard Span (8-for-23).

Like last night's Giants starter, Jake Peavy, Matt Cain was off to a horrific start. He has been very good over his last two starts (15 IP, three runs), but before that his ERA was 7.84. He's allowed seven home runs in 46 innings. He was awful against the Cubs last year (two starts, nine innings, 11 earned runs), though current Cubs are hitting .223 (27-for-121) against him. Here's to the April version of Cain showing up tonight.

Today's game is on Fox. It's Fox's primary game going to most of the USA, with Matt Vasgersian and John Smoltz as announcers. Here's the coverage map. If you live in one of the areas where this game is not being carried by your local Fox affiliate and you have MLB.tv or Extra Innings, this game will be available on those services.

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

SB Nation game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Giants site McCovey Chronicles. If you do go there to interact with Giants fans, please be respectful, abide by their individual site rules and serve as a good representation of Cub fans in general and BCB in particular.

The 2016 Game Thread procedure will be the same as the one used at the end of 2015. Here's how it works.

You'll find the game preview posted separately on the front page, two hours before game time (90 minutes for some early day games following night games).

At the same time, a StoryStream™ containing the preview will also post on the front page. The First Pitch Thread and all the overflow threads will be published in that stream, as well as the recap. The recap will also live on the front page as a separate post, and at the time I write the recap I will rename the stream "Cubs vs. (Team) (Day of Week) Game Threads" so you can go back and find every thread related to that particular game.

You will also be able to find the preview, First Pitch Thread, all the overflow threads and recap in the box marked "Chicago Cubs Game Threads" at the bottom of the front page (you can also find them in this section link). They will also appear in the game's StoryStream™ as noted above.

The First Pitch thread will post at five minutes before game time, then an overflow thread at one hour, two hours and 2:45 after the scheduled game time.

Discuss amongst yourselves.